9911796707
TMI Blog1885 (1) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ngs which he had offered to make over to the plaintiff, and that, under those circumstances, defendant was under no legal obligation to support the plaintiff. 2. It has been urged before us that the question, whether defendant had inherited property liable for plaintiff's maintenance, was dealt with in such an unsatisfactory manner by the Assistant Judge, that we ought not to accept his finding. It was objected that the opinion ex pressed, by the Assistant Judge, that the entries in the defendant's books did not represent actual entries of interest, was a mere assumption, and not based upon any evidence; and, further, that he had not appreciated the evidence afforded by the defendant's account in the books of his sister, which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t of the females of the family at large," and concludes that it is only in the former class of cases that, independently of the existence of family property, a legal obligation exists. 4. This view of the Hindu texts has been fully discussed by the learned authors of West and Buhler's Treatise on Hindu Law Page 230 (3rd ed) and the opinion has indeed been expressed that undue importance had been given to the above distinction relied on by Sir Michael Westropp. They say, p. 240 : Whatever precept of the Smritis, therefore, bad been violated to the injury of a complainant, whether expresse in terms hortative or prohibitory, and whether a penalty was annexed to the rule or not, the alleged injury might, if the prince or the judges so ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t be maintained even doing a hundred times that which ought to be done." And, lastly, a text in the Mitakshara on the Subtraction of Gift, ch. X, fol. 69, p 1, pl. 1, referred to by Mr. Strange in his Manual of Hindu Law, which says: "Where there may be no property, but what is self-acquired, the only person whose maintenance out of such property is imperative are aged parents, wife, and minor children." 7. It is said that the word mata, and mata pitrau, which are the Sanskrit words used in these texts for mother and parents, include a step-mother. That mata may in certain oases be construed as meaning stop-mother, would appear from the contention of Balambhatta mentioned in West and Buhler, 471, and also from the discussion ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... g the texts, the combination of mother, father, wife and children in the same text would appear to confine the term to the natural mother as one of the four nearest and dearest relations which a man possesses; and, lastly, the strong terms in which a violation of the duty is denounced, point in the same direction. 9. Upon all the considerations which the case suggests, we think that the expression "mother" and "parents" should be read in their natural sense in the above text, and that the obligation to support a step-mother independently of family property should be left to the conscience of each individual, influenced, as it must be, more or less by the opinion of the particular community in which he lives. 10. Decree ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
